I got really bored last night so I suddenly had this idea. I would assign points to the characters that and sort of worked out which school have the most point etc (as I said, I got really bored.)

So this is basically the system I used:

Characters that I dislike quite a bit: -2 points.
Characters that I slightly dislike: -1 point.
Characters I am indifferent to: no points at all.
Characters that I slightly like: 1 point.
Character that I like a lot: 2 points.

Favourite character gets three points, while the character I dislike (hate) the most get -3 points. As you can probably guess, the +3 points went to Shiraishi while the -3 point went to Echizen. I then added the points together and the results were quite surprising. Mainly: the school that come third, the school that come last and Seigaku’s position. Okay…I’ll just show the result (for my safety I am not going to show all the exact details…of who got how many points…)

1= Shitenhouji (+12 points) Not really surprising since Shiraishi is in this school and I like almost all of them. Chitose however, did bring the overall score down with a -2. (I just don’t like him)

2-Fudoumine (+10 points) Not really that surprising since I probably like all of them due to what they went though, although not that many got 2 points, but they are the only school where everyone got 1 point at the very least.

3- Rikkai (+8 points) This really really shock me because as I said before, I didn’t use to like Rikkai. And what is even more shocking is the fact that no one got any negative points. (Kirihara is one of the three that got zero, because I really don’t know whether I like or dislike him…) And this is all thanks to fan fiction. My sister is always complaining about how fan fiction changes ones perception. Well, I think she should stop disapproving of this so much because I wouldn’t be talking about Rikkai with her if I didn’t end up changing my perspective about them due to fan fiction. (by the way, Jackal is one of the three that got +2 points.)

4- St Rudolph and Yamabuki (+2 points) I didn’t include Dan Tachi because this is about the regulars, the players. If I include him then I’ll be including people like Sakuno and the coaches (in that case Shitenhouji’s first place will increase even more while those in last place would do worse…) Basically two from each school got +2 points (both buchou did. I know, crazy as it is but I actually like Minami that much!) but due to Mizuki and Akutsu (he was a player) the score got brought down.

6- Rokkaku (+1 points) Kind of funny, since the first character of Rokkaku is six. Basically this score is thanks to Kurobane (he’s the only one to have got any point other then zero.)

7- Seigaku (0 points) Initially I was quite shocked at this, since I actually really like Kaidou, Kawamura and Ooishi (they all got +2 points) but their point got brought down to zero due to the characters I don’t like there. (As I said Echizen got -3 points. The person who got the -2 point is probably quite easy to guess but someone else in Seigaku also got -1 point!!!)

8- Higa (-2 points) The negative points are coming up. But surprise surprise, Higa is not last! Well…I like Kite and I actually gave him +2 points…I know that he did a lot of amoral stuff but somehow I actually still like him. But for everyone else whom we know (excluding their doubles 1 because we haven’t seen them in action) I gave them negative points. Unlike Kite, I can’t really see past that and like them as a character. But due to what they suffered, I did not give them -2 points as I do feel sorry for them.

9- Hyoutei (-5 points) I won’t say anything other then this: Shishido was the only one who actually got more then zero.

It is such a big relief to have finished my exams…although I really am not looking forward to the result but it is really good to be able to laze around, as well as getting up late without feeling guilty…

Anyway…a lot of the people who become my friend via prince of tennis online seem to be major Rikkai fans, so I would really appreciate it if you guys leave me your opinions about what I will be talking about.

First of all, I want to make my stand quite clear, although most people would probably know it since I have said this more then once. I am a major Shiraishi and Shitenhouji fan. The first prince of tennis stuff I have seen are probably the yakiniku competition and the joking tennis’s match, then Shiraishi’s match, and then I read the whole thing. I initially didn’t like Rikkai much but now I like them a bit more. I have read almost all of the manga but I think there are some bits in the finals that I have missed...

Basically I charged through the manga, and to be honest I was at the stage of just wanting to find out the end of every match and see Shitenhouji coming out. By that time we only had up to volume 37 so I read the rest on line, then I kind of got spaced out at the singles 3 of the nationals, but then due to suddenly reading the bit where Sanada threw away his head on challenge, I was really touched so I started to read it again. But I then sort of stopped in doubles 2, I think I resumed reading when I saw how hard Kaidou was fighting.

Singles 2...I think I continued to read it because I was curious about Niou, even though it turned to Tezuka/Fuji/Seigaku fan service, I sort of just skimmed that bit. Then because Niou turned into Shiraishi…although I now really really wish that he did not.

Now, I am now waiting for the latest genius due to really wanting to know about what will happen in the Yukimura/ Echizen match, and I realise that I do want Yukimura to win, and to an extent I actually quite like him now.

So this is what I now feel but since I have watched very few of the animation I think I am unbiased because when I made my judgement on Nakai Sachiko’s yukimura, I didn’t particular care about Yukimura. I know he is the buchou who got sick, and his team respect him quite a bit, but that was sort of all. The impact of how bad his disease was didn’t seem to have hit me until quite late because I didn’t read it carefully.

I first properly heard Nakai Sachiko’s Yukimura in one of the tenipure family episode, probably not a very good example, the next time I heard her (the seiyuu) is when Rikkai come out in the OVA, episode 4 of the second OVA, When Yukimura said: “this seems interesting, don’t you think so, Sanada?” My instinct thought was: “Can we please switch back to Shitenhouji?” as a) I am a big Shitenhouji fan, which I have made very clear, b) Yukimura sounds really scary (this is the main reason.) I don’t know how to explain this but Yukimura just sounded really scary at that point.

During one weekend my sister was checking something and she ended up watching Yukimura’s famous speech- when he told Sanada about how tennis is everything, and I actually find that bit really touching, although I was already biased by that stage by wanting him to win instead of Echizen.

But what I am trying to say is this: I think Nagai Sachiko did a great job as Yukimura. I think she made him sound the way I think he would sound like. And I think Yukimura would need to be done by a female because of his really feminine and delicate appearance, and I believe Nagai Sachiko’s really low voice really suit Yukimura.

The reason I am having this entry is because Nagai Sachiko seems to be the most criticised seiyuu in prince of tennis and maybe in any other anime that I have seen. I really don’t understand why she gets so much criticism, and what people say about her is just so…shocking… I heard this from my sister who visits general forums more, unlike me- cause I just tend to visit Shiraishi and Shitenhouji communities. I think general forums actually give a much better ‘statistics’. Eg. You might really really dislike the seiyuu because he or she didn’t fit in with the already idealised image you have in your head, as you really really like that character. Or you can just be prepared to like the seiyuu’s portrayal no matter what because you love that character. I think for me, I did a mixture. I always think that Shiraishi should have a highish voice and as long as they give me that then I am prepared to say the seiyuu did a great job. Since Hosoya-san’s voice is at the higher range, I really like his Shiraishi and think he did a great job. But even if the seiyuu for Shiraishi has a lower voice I don’t think I would hate the seiyuu, although I’ll probably have a mumble every time I hear him. A bit like Hikitsu from Genbu Kaiden. I don’t like Hiyama Nobuyuki’s Hikitsu but I don’t press mute whenever he comes out.

But there have been people who really really hoped that Yukimura will be replaced by someone else in the OVA, and there are also people who say that they seriously can’t stand watching the bit when Yukimuar come out due to the seiyuu and some people even deliberately press mute. This just seems too harsh. I have seen various criticisms about Shitenhouji’s cast and I don’t know if they can represent the general trend but they seem to be examples of normal criticisms. For example, some people think Hosoya-san exaggerates Shiraishi’s accent and it probably is true, but then which kansai character doesn’t get his accent exaggerated? Likewise, people think Sugimoto Yuu and Yusa Koji are not loud enough as Kintarou/Watanabe. But all these are just passing comments. None of these people mentions anything about deliberately press mute, they still watch it.

Personally I think Kenya should have a higher voice but that does not prevent me from enjoying the OVA (to tell the truth I seem to have got quite used to it now.)

What I don’t get is this- some of these people do not seem to be die hard Yukimura fans, so why are they so touchy about this? Apparently there is a story about how Yukimura might have been voiced by someone else but will that make you want to mute the TV whenever Yukimura comes out just because you think he should have been done by someone else? I mean…isn’t this a bit too extreme?

Okay, to be honest I don’t know what I am trying to say. I understand that everyone has different opinions but I just feel that the criticisms on Nagai-san is too harsh, almost malicious. (And I don’t even really like Yukimura or the seiyuu that much) I just think it is too unfair. I think she did a great job and I think she sings really nicely too. I really love Yukimura’s best of rival players- and this is completely unbiased, I listened to this song when I disliked rikkai and didn’t really care about Yukimrua other then just hoping he would recover, because that is basic humanity. I admit, I don’t like the song ‘Way to go’, which Yukimura sang with Sanda, but I think it is just the song, I probably wouldn’t have liked it unless a charater/seiyuu I really love sang it. (personally, I just really can’t see Sanada talking in English…don’t ask me why…)

After more then a thousand words…I still don’t really know what I am trying to say. Orz…I guess I am just sharing out my own opinion on what I feel about Nagai-san’s Yukimrua, and that I think she does not deserve all these criticism. I am also very curious about what everyone else thinks.

I don’t know what I am doing half the time…I think I’ll probably only be back to normal when exams finish, which is next Tuesday…

Anyway…here is a story I wrote quite some time ago…I think about a year ago. I really just did this due to a random ‘why not?’ feeling after I had this crazy idea. This is actually a Hotohori x Soi pairing. I don’t think I really support this pairing because I just don’t see it happening, although I do think they deserve someone as devoted as the other. I think I wrote it due to a ‘what if and why not’ since these two are my favorite character, and no one seemed to have done one. So I did this fan fiction, based on the idea of what if he and Soi meet and fell in love. Personally I think it’ll be a super tragic story, because they will not be able to get together- he is the emperor so he’ll never be allowed to marry her.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of this.

I don’t think you’ll believe me, but I really am sorry at what I did to your people. I suppose this serves as another sign of how I can never be your empress.
Not that the emperor of Konan can ever marry someone who was a prostitute, as well as being one of the seishi of Seiryuu.
Nakago has gone, and so has Suboshi. I do not know where and I do not think that I care anymore. How strange it is, that idolization and even duty can vanishes so suddenly due to love.
I want to find you…I will find you.
Do you remember what we promised each other on our last night together? The one who dies later will be with the other at their final moment, while the one who leaves first will wait for the other’s life to end before they go to their next life.
It seems that I must be the one to watch you die, while you will be the one who waits for me. I wish I can call you an idiot for your believe in honour, the cause of your death, but you made me realize that such things can be admirable.
Why does my face always get wet when I think of you? Hotohori, can you tell me why?

When I first met you I thought of you as beautiful in the same way I describes Nakago, but unlike him you are not accompanied by any bitterness, but by sadness. A sadness that did not go away even when you turned to smile at me.
“Lady Haku, you are welcome here.” you said with a smile before you turned to your courtiers, telling them that you would not hurt me because I am not responsible for what the emperor of Kutou is doing, as my country is only ruled by Kutou, not really a part of it. (1)
For your own reasons you went along with Nakago’s game, and even allow me to stand beside you as you played the guzheng in your garden, with the few guards rather far away.
“Lady Haku, did you enjoying the music?” (2)
I wished that you would not call me that because that title became a mockery when you said it, you must be aware of my real identity. At the very least you certainly would never be foolish enough to believe that I really was a princess from that land.
“I am no expert in such things.”
I did not lie to you, for I was never in a position where I had a chance of being educated, and the guzheng have always been the toy of the very elite. (3)
“It was a piece about the legend of Suzaku.” you told me as you began to stroke these strings again, completely undaunted by the clouds that were being knitted together not far away from you. (4)
“For a long time I idolized the priestess of Suzaku because I believed that she would be the one to free me from this elaborate cage, this isolation. In the same way, you idolized the first person who offered you a helping hand…Lady Soi. (5)
I still do not know why I fell, whether it was because I was shocked even though I knew you were aware of my true identity, or whether it was because you were being so kind to me. Sadly, I cannot even rule out the possibility that I did what I did as a way of hoping to seduce you.
“I knew what I have been told about you is true as soon as I saw you, for I can recognize what I have in another.” You told me gently.
“Is that why you let me near you? Because you felt pity?”
“Maybe it is because I want to die.” You interrupted me, but you didn’t even raise you voice or harden your tone. “As I learnt that death is the only thing that can free me from all this.
“Call it a moment of madness if you must.” You said before you offered me your hand once more. (6)

So you finally got your wish, but are you really happy? You may want freedom, but you have never been able to neglect responsibility. That is your weakness, because it torments you when you did nothing wrong. Had any one of Kutou’s emperor loved their country and people as you have then none of this will be happening.
I am right in changing as your soldiers are automatically parting for me, recollecting that ‘princess’ who stayed for a month in Konan with more then half of these times by your side. Of course, many wonder why you would not make her into your empress when you spend many of the nights in my bed.
“Kaen.” You are the only one to call me by my real name now, and I will never let another do so. “Kaen…you know that all this will not and cannot last.”
Of course I know! Even though I ended up loving you, I never once forget the fact that I was sent to kill you! (7)
I wish that you had let me raise your chi at least once, as that might have helped you but…
“I am not doing this for the same reason as Nakago. I do this because I love you.”

There you are, still alone even though you are surrounded by so many people.
You put that piece of paper down and stretch your hand to me. I miss you so much! (8)
Even though the time we had together grew less with the passing of each day, I regret nothing at all. All I want is to love you, and hold onto the memory of how I am loved back.
“Kaen…have you come to fulfil our promise?” you finally asked me as your raises your other hand to touch my hair.
You still have that ornament! Of course, I never once thought that you would throw it away, but I just didn’t expect you to carry it everywhere with you. (9)
“I cherish it because it is your’s, but I think it looks better at its right place.”
“Hotohori-sama, she is…” that monk beside you begin, which the other actually points a knife toward me.
“She is no longer involved with all this, just as I will soon be free.”
So you know that I will join you soon? Yes, I will. I will die with you so we can step into our next life hand in hand, and it will be a life where we will always be together.
“I love you.” I repeat these empty words again and they somehow seem to make you smile.
“I love you too, you are the one who have my love…Miaka possessed my idolisation while I married Houki out of duty. But you…you have my love. Isn’t that the best thing?” (10)
It is better for us to die now, because I do not want to spend the rest of my life away from you, especially with the knowledge that another woman will bear the title of your wife, as well as being the mother of your children.
I am so selfish in that way…
You say I am not selfish at all? Only you truly sees me as who I really am. As a woman who desires nothing other then to be loved back by the one who I love.
You hand is growing so cold…can you not speak anymore? I’ll go to the place where it is still warm then.
Hotohori…wait for me…wait for Kaen.

1) I can’t find her country’s name in English, but basically she came from a place where the kingdom is an individual kingdom, but they decided to let Kutou rule them.
2) Soi’s real name is Haku Kaen.
3) The guzheng is a traditional Chinese instrument and it is one of the four Chinese art so it is relatively posh…if that is the right world. But I think it does costs quite a bit, and you have to hire teachers so I think only the rather well to do people play them.
4) Soi is using her powers- intending to strike Hotohori with thunder and lightening soon.
5) I actually don’t really agree with this, I think Soi’s love is due to love, not just due to the fact that Nakago saved her.
6) He did this due a sudden whim. Maybe a sudden depression? But I think even this is a bit out of character as Hotohori is just too noble, too responsible.
7) What happened is that Nakago sent Soi to assassinate Hotohori by saying that she is a princess from the land she come from, and is visiting Konan due to political reasons.
8) This refers to the photo of the seven seishi of Suzaku and Miaka, taken in volume 6.
9) Soi had this twin hair ornament and she gave one to Hotohori, and kept the other. He raised his hand to place the ornament he had on her hair.
10) I must mention that I actually support Hotohori x Houki, because I think he really did love her. Initially I thought that he married her due to duty, but after reading volume 15 I truly believe that he loved Houki back. But for the sake of this story, I have to make it that he married Houki due to duty.

I hope some people found it interesting, and if you like this then I recommend my other fushigi yugi stories, I guess they are my proper ones. Hidden Secrets is the first one, while Buried Memories is the sequel. But they are basically Hotohori centric. They are about Hotohori and Yuri (who is my OC).

My lecturer sort of went berserk yesterday...this was naturally quite a surprise because one does not expect one’s lecturer to go berserk, especially when you take account of why he went berserk. I think most lecturer and teachers are quite touchy about any one talking in their class, and I think this is really understandable, because they are really doing this for the students.

But this lecturer seem to take it really personally, if someone who can’t speak English come to my lecturers, then they will soon learn the following sayings: “Don’t talk”, “Some body is talking”, “I don’t understand how anyone can be so stupid to talk when they paid so much to come to class”, because he keeps on saying these lines, he actually says them quite a lot. I will say on an average of three times per day. Well, he started off quite calm, he’ll just say: “If you don’t want to listen then go outside,”, “If you want to talk then go outside.” He would be quite calm. But yesterday he went berserk.

He had his back turned as he was referring to something on the screen behind him and someone was naturally talking. He then went...berserk...

Seriously...

He started to yell along these lines: “I don’t get this, how can some one be so stupid to talk!” “Every time I turn my back someone start to talk!” Eh...I really don’t think this is fully true because I think people often talk even if he is facing us. And it wasn’t even that bad, there was probably only three or four people talking at the most. But he went totally berserk, even saying this: “I never had this problem in the past ten years! If you don’t want to listen then get the bloody hell out of here!” I must admit, I really wonder whether he was just going to charge out of the room.

No one took the offer of leaving when he first made it, but then, a few minutes later, my lecturer suddenly said: “Are you two leaving? I hope you really know your stuff well because this bit is pretty hard!” Everyone then naturally turned around to see who is leaving.

I must mention, the wavering clock is a series of one shots that are not not connected together at all. They are all completely separated from each other.

Summary: an alternative interpretation on why Chitose quit just before the semi-final. Watanabe/Shiraishi, with one sided Chitose/Shiraishi.

Author’s Note: It’s quite funny but the first Watanabe/Shiraishi fan fiction that I wrote is totally one-sided, while the next one is less one-sided, but it is still sort of one sided. So maybe this is why I wrote this one- I probably secretly want to write a proper one. (ie. Where the feeling become mutal.)
I guess this is my apology fan fic to Watanabe (laugh). For the longest time I didn’t like him as I blame him for not having stopped Shiraishi from playing his perfect tennis, but then I realized something: do we actually have prove that Watanabe didn’t help Shiraishi at all? Cause maybe he actually told Shiraishi it is more important to have fun but Shiraishi still decided to play perfect tennis. And then at the other day, when I was writing a Shiraishi/OC fan fiction, I suddenly realized this: Shiraishi has a tendency of (in my opinion) bottling things up, as his team mates doesn’t really know that he doesn’t like his perfect tennis, so it is possible that Watanabe didn’t know at all.

Written: October 20, 2007

After Shitenhouji’s glorious win of 3-0 in the quarter finals of the nationals, the boys were allowed to have some free time before they started to prepare for tomorrow. Chitose, Gin and Kenya decided to use this time to talk to their acquaintance in other schools, while the rest were just mucking around outside their lodging.
But Chitose was to find four of his team mates running around the nearby court after he returned from talking with Tachibana.
“What are you guys doing?”
Shitenhouji’s infamous doubles answered by releasing a sigh of great suffering before they pushed Zaizen forward.
“Hey, it was not my fault!” the second year immediately protested. “I would never have knocked the can of coke over if I wasn’t trying to escape from the two of you.”
“Zaizen spilt coke on Shiraishi’s scarf.” Kintarou, the only one who was actually cheerful, explained.
“’That’ scarf?” Chitose asked, beginning to understand why this was happening.
“What else would make him do this?” Yuuji pointed out dryly.
Shiriashi started to wear a plain white scarf for ever single day of the winter in his second year of school, and he continued to take the scarf almost every where with him in the other seasons by putting it in his tennis bag.
Rumours naturally spread but no one has discovered the truth as Shiraishi told anyone who asked that he would say no to every single question.
“Where is he anyway? I need to talk to him.”
“He went to wash his scarf.” Koharu said. “If you see him then please try to persuade him to not kill us since he says that we can only stop when Kintarou stops.”
“Isn’t he being punished along with you guys?”
“No, he just want to run with us as he thinks this is fun,” Yuuji said in a tone that was on the verge of being labelled as great despair. “Shiraishi then had that brilliant idea of making him supervise us.”
This was not a small matter, as Kintarou actually ran all the way from Shizuhouka to Tokyo…

Shiraishi’s temporary room reflected his personality quite well: it was relatively tidy with one or two objects not in the right place as the reminder that he did not want to be a perfectionist.
But the owner of the room was absent, and Chitose was quite disappointed at this because each passing second was decreasing his courage. It didn’t really matter when he chooses to confess to Shiraishi, but it was best to do it now, because this was the day before the semi final.
Shitenhouji was eliminated at the semi-final of last year’s national, just like Shishigaku. But Chitose felt that Shiraishi differed from him greatly by being rather obsessed with his wish of letting the team go beyond this position.
This was why he wanted to let Shiraishi know what he now felt, so he could be the one to comfort him if he was unable to achieve his dream.
Upon hearing the approaching footstep he smiled and was going to announce his presence by opening the door when he suddenly heard Shiraishi’s voice. His hand quickly dropped due to the realization that Shiraishi would not be alone, as his friend was never the type of person who had a tendency of talking to himself.
Chitose did not want another person to even see him here as his hasty departure or request of speaking to Shiraishi alone would be too suspicious. While he was certain that Shiraishi would act as if nothing had happened if he could not accept him, another might not be able to keep quiet.
Since he was unable to come up with a good excuse of why he was here fast enough, he did the only other way of evasion that he could think of.
He hid in the closet, this could be interpreted as a rather wise move as he was able to see what happened in the room due to a crack in the door of the unused furniture.
“Don’t worry, Kuranosuke,” the use of first name by their coach did not really surprise him as Watanabe has done this before without either explanation or warning. “This stain will be easily erased by bleach.”
Shiraishi was carrying a bunch of papers that was probably their coach’s paper work, while Watanabe was examining the slightly wet scarf. Chitose could almost understand why Shiraishi was so angry: the dark stain was very obvious on the white wool.
He suddenly frowned- has there been a time when Shiraishi actually allowed anyone to hold his precious scarf before?
“I hope so.” Shiraishi muttered as he sat down on the bed. “I really can’t believe them! What were they thinking by putting coke right above my bag? Although I probably shouldn’t have left it unzipped in the first place, but still…”
“I will buy you a new one if it doesn’t wash off.” Watanabe promised, his tone unusually gentle and tender.
“But it wouldn’t be the same.” Shiraishi complained, the usually mature buchou almost sounded as if he was pouting. “It wouldn’t be your first present to me.”
It was clear that this was not a normal conversation between a coach and his student, but Chitose still fervently hoped that he was wrong as it would hurt too much to fail before you even tried.
“Then it is good that I didn’t just give you a cake.” Saying so, Watanabe sat down beside him and looped the scarf around him before he tugged it very lightly in order to make Shiraishi rest his head on his lap, completely discarding the boy’s protest of how dangerous doing this was.
“Being alone with you in my room is suspicious enough.”
“We’ll just say that we are discussing paper work, or I can escape by jumping out from the window.”
“You can be so childish sometimes.” Shiraishi teased as he leant against Watanabe, his happy smile reflecting what he felt for the older man.
“As I told you on that day, thirteen years is not always that big a gap.” Watanabe replied. His left hand was clasped with Shiraishi’s bandaged one, while his other hand was playing with Shiraishi’s hair in a very intimate fashion. “How do you feel about tomorrow?”
“Quite nervous at being the first to play, yet very glad that I finally get to have a game. By the way, what will the order for the last match be?”
“That depend on our opponent, but I promise that you will get to play no matter what happens.”
“Are you letting your feelings make your judgement?”
“I often think that things would be better for you if I had let my personal emotions affect my decisions.” At this point, a bitterness actually crept into the usually cheerful voice. “I should never have let you be the buchou in your second year… at the very least I should have prevented you from playing perfect tennis.”
“None of it is your fault.” Shiraishi said firmly, raising his free hand to stroke Watanabe’s face. “I would probably have made the same mistakes as I wouldn’t have understood. Even worse, I might have resented you for stopping me doing something that I wished to do at that time.”
“But I will certainly be very relieved when you stop playing your perfect tennis, because it is not easy for me to hear all these praises of you being perfect.”
“Only in tennis! You actually get jealous?”
“Insecure, not jealous. But don’t you think it is unfair that I, the one you choose, can not openly declare this?”
“You sound as if I have a lot of people confessing to me all the time when you are the only who have done so.” At this Shiraishi laughed, as he was recollecting how he managed to end up being loved by his coach. “I am really glad that you did although I got quite a fright as I never thought that such a thing would happen.”
Chitose had to clench his hands together to prevent himself from yelling out aloud, or banging on the wood in order to release his anger. It sounded as if Shiraishi only ended up loving Watanabe after learning of the other’s affection for him. Would it be possible for him to be in the position he so desired if he had made up him mind earlier?
Shiraishi suddenly sat up and placed his arms around Watanabe, before he kissed him on the lips with both longing and passion- what Chitose himself desired to do greatly.
“Alright, now we have to go.” Shiraishi said firmly when he broke free from the other’s tight embrace.
“Can’t you at least say my name once?” Watanabe protested, grabbing Shiraishi’s hand.
“That is too dangerous as I know that I’ll make the mistake of addressing you that way in front of everyone else. But there is less then a year left before we can stop meeting in secret. It isn’t long!”
“Yet I am not sure if I want this year to end.” Watanabe commented out slowly. “Because I probably wouldn’t get to see you every single day.”
His words made the young boy laugh and slip his arms around his neck once more, finding himself unable to return to being a normal student yet due to what he just heard.
This also convinced Chitose that Shiraishi really felt what Watanabe felt, he was with the older man because he loved him, or at the very least feeling an emotion very akin to love.

“You want to quit the tennis club right now?” Watanabe asked with a frown, not aware that he was one of the two that caused Chitose’s to make this decision.
Chitose simply gave a nod before he muttered out his excuse of wanting to see everything in a different angle by not being in the team.
The real reason was that he could not bear to stay in the club anymore.
He should be glad that Shiraishi was happy but he couldn’t help but to feel a deep pain as he was not the one who could let the person he care about so much to be happy by merely being beside him.
“Without even telling your team mates?” Watanabe continued, examining the form in his hand with a slight hint of distaste.
“I think it is best as they won’t be able to understand…” he muttered.
He was like Kintarou by being a new comer among the already closely knitted regulars, but they accepted him completely, treating him as if he had been with them ever since they all first met. And their condemnation would hurt, especially when Shiraishi’s reproach would be the strongest due to his position of being the buchou.
But to watch Shiraishi smile at another was a much more painful thing.

Author’s Note: Initially, this was just going to be a random one shot showing Watanabe and Shiraishi together being cute, so all I had planned was the scarf incident. But then I suddenly had the idea of making Chitose be in this too, and I don’t know why but I don’t really like Chitose/Shiraishi pairing, and I don’t think this is because I don’t really like Chitose. I don’t like Fuji that much but I quite like reading Shiraishi/Fuji fan fictions.

But as for the overall title, I got that idea from this story. It’s ‘The wavering clock’ as it plays on the idea of how the two of them (or just Watanabe, depending on the context) sort of want and don’t want this year to end. Because even though Watanabe loving Shiraishi is illegal, he get to see Shiraishi ever day, which he might not be able to do once Shiraishi is no longer in Shitenhouji.

Lastly, what Shiraishi feels for Watanabe, what happened is that Watanabe loves Shiraishi and so he told him, Shiraishi is unsure but he liked Watanabe so he agreed to being with him. And then, after some time he ended up loving Watanabe back. So basically what Chitose said is right.

It’s funny as this series can actually be categorized as romance based, unlike my oc fic with Shiraishi, although I think it is because I am using that one to focus and examine his character.

I was in a really low mood this weekend so I didn’t do my weekend entry, so I will do it now, I mentioned about this really beautiful doujinshi that I read at September 24th and it sorted of inspired me to write another same sex pairing story. (And I was looking at tons of fan art too during that period) I know, I’m crazy. I have to admit, before prince of tennis I hardly read same sex pairing fan fictions, the only exceptions are Yoru and Ran from Sukisyo, Seishiro and Subaru from Tokyo Babylon and X. And they were just different somehow...

Summary: Watanabe remembers how he confessed to Shiraishi many years ago and mourns for the fact that he would never know the answer Shiraishi would have given him. Warning: character death and a little spoiler about the Shitenhouji arc. Watanabe/Shiraishi pairing.
Author’s Note: This one is a bit different from my previous one shot with this pairing: “conflicting wishes” this one is less one sided but for some reason I decided to be mean to Watanabe again…
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Written: September 23-24, 2007

Watanabe thought that it was a pity Japanese mourning clothes were no longer white as white seemed more suitable for the boy whose name included that character, for the boy who was like his name in many ways.
He would always wear this dark kimono on this day every year, while the bucket hat that seemed permanently attached to him would be discarded, and he even shaved properly for this occasion.
“Some one very important and precious to me died on this day.” Was his explanation.
This ended up being repeated by every third and second years to their first year kohai, who were always shocked at this sudden change of attire.
He couldn’t really remember when he began to stop yelling, or even when his words became more like whispers. His current students, who often missed his softly spoken words, would probably find it very difficult to believe that he used to be able to issue all his orders from the clubroom if he wanted to.
The relationship he had with his students also became much more formal. He no longer teased and laughed with them as much as he used to do in the first three…no, in the first four years of his teaching career.
It was not because he reached his thirties, it was all due to the death of the boy who still had so much to live for when he was claimed by death.
The pencil in his hand snapped due to the mere thought of that day.
Turning to look out from his window, he could see boys outside who dreamt these same dreams that they had once dreamt too. How many could achieve them? And would any be taken from it when they begun to walk that path as he had been?
His desk used to be beside the window sideways, so he didn’t need to deliberately move in order to see what was happening outside, but his desk has rotated so the window was now behind him. This was not that practical but it prevented those who sat down to talk to him from being in that position.

It was the last day of the tennis club for that year and Shiraishi Kuranosuke, the current buchou, was sitting in the office, completely oblivious to what his coach planned to tell him now that he would soon stop being his coach.
Due to being extremely nervous, Watanabe had been chain smoking the whole day, ignoring the protests from every single person. As he prepared to grab one more cigarette, Shiraishi reached across the table and took the packet away- as he did so his fingers brushed across Watanabe’s hand.
Watanabe knew that he blushed, but the blush should only be visible to those who were trying to find it.
“Sensei, you should really smoke less.” Shiraishi said simply as he looked at the words of warning printed on the packet.
“For you, I will stop.” He said softly.
“Quite ironic that you will do this when you are no longer going to be my coach.” Shiraishi pointed out, still reading the small prints.
“It is the very opposite. It is because I will no longer be your coach.” his tone was more serious then it had ever been, making Shiraishi turn to look at him with eyes that were filled with puzzlement, and perhaps some shock, but not comprehension.
“I don’t understand Sensei at all.” Shiraishi finally said very softly, and Watanabe could only marvel at how Shiraishi managed to remain so innocent in such matters despite the presence of Hitouji and Koharu.
“Why do people agree to do things for another person?” Watanabe began. “Isn’t it because we care for them? But sometimes you cannot let the other person know how much you care for him, so you would not do what you are prepared to do for him.
“It is often so with a teacher and his student…a teacher who loves his student beyond his requirement.”
The young boy’s eyes widened when he finally figured out everything, that the many times he found his coach’s gaze rested on him was not just because he was the buchou. But much to Watanabe’s surprise and relief, he merely raised his eye brows slightly, instead of running out of the room.
“I don’t condemn this as Hitouji and Koharu are very good friends of mine.” He stated rather thoughtfully, the only emotion in his voice being surprise. “But I never thought that something like this would happen to me. I always believe that I would eventually get married with a woman when I grew up, like all my other relatives.”
“Is this a no then?” Watanabe asked, forcing his voice to remain steady. It was not as if he hasn’t contemplated this possibility before, if he was honest then he would admit that he was probably more certain of a rejection then an acceptance.
“I am not saying that.” Shiraishi immediately corrected him, although his frown was increasing. “I do like Sensei in a special way but it could merely be because Sensei’s position is not like any other person. Nor have I actually liked anyone in such a way before so I don’t really understand…”
Leaning forward, Watanabe placed his hand under the boy’s chin in order to draw him a bit closer.
“Shiraishi…will you allow me to kiss you just once?” he pleaded. “This might be the last time I ever see you so please let me have a kiss for all these three years.”
Much to his great surprises Shiraishi nodded without much hesitation.
“It might help me to find an answer.” He said simply as he closed his eyes.
All of a sudden the boy looked so vulnerable and fragile, and he probably was, by doing this he was really giving permission for his coach to do whatever he want.
Watanabe allowed his hand to stroke the boy’s cheeks before he gently brushed some of Shiraishi’s hair off his face. Each lock felt so smooth as they slipped through his fingers so easily.
Then he placed his lips against Shiraishi’s rather dry lips that indicate he was actually nervous despite his exterior calmness, he smiled slightly, this was not really unlike how Shiraishi tended to behave.
The kiss started off as very sweet although it could not satisfy the three years he had secretly loved the boy. It might have lasted longer and changed to being passionate if Shiraishi did not pull away.
“It was…very pleasant.” He whispered in surprise, tapping his fingers against his now rather moist lips. “But I…I am still a bit unsure even though I now realise that I must like you a lot to feel like that.”
What else could Watanabe say apart from: “I understand, and you know that I am not forcing you.”
“Will Sensei…will you give me time to think about all this?” Shiraishi actually stated this, rather then asked.
“How long a time do you need?”
“A year at the very least, but I should be able to give you an answer when I return to Japan.”
“You ask a hard thing.” Watanabe muttered, refusing to let go of Shiraishi’s hand.
“Because I don’t want to make any decisions I would regret.” Was the steady reply. “This is the first time someone told me that they love me and until this point I have never thought about being with any one as their…boyfriend.
“Most of all, it is from the last person I ever expect this to be said. You know that our society does not really view this in a favourable light so I need to make sure I understand what I really feel for you before I decide whether I can accept this.”
Once more, Watanabe could only nod. After all, didn’t he just tell the boy that when you loved someone, you would do things that make them happy, even if you didn’t like it yourself?
“I will be waiting for your answer. As cliché as this sound I will count down to that day.” He promised when he finally allowed Shiraishi’s hand to slide out of his grasp.

An answer that probably never came, Watanabe thought as he carefully unlocked the only tidy drawer in his desk. Unlike the rest of his crammed office, this space only contained a single brown paper bag.
He took out the photos and clippings he had preserved in an almost reverent fashion. Most of the photos were official ones taken by journalists; although there were some that he had took himself.
One of his favourite one was an interview that happened when Shiraishi was only in his first year. Unlike the two princes of tennis two years later, Shiraishi had been quite aware and therefore nervous of the honour he received. So he was actually looking beyond the interviewer to his coach and buchou, who both smiled at him reassuringly.
Then there was the one where the second year buchou accepted the awards for third place in the nationals with what seemed a sincere smile, as only those who knew him really well could realise he was a bit disappointed, something Watanabe never really understood.
Another image that he really liked was the photo that was taken just before Shiraishi broke his opponent’s final counter in the nationals at his third year, because that reminded Watanabe of the determination Shiraishi possessed, he would keep on trying no matter what.
He carefully lined up the photos and documents once again before he picked up the still unopened letter. Despite all his efforts the writings on the envelope were still a bit faded and he could only hope that it would not disappear after a few more years.
Due to some accident in the delivery, this letter cruelly arrived after the news that changed him so much. If he had received it on time then he would have already opened it.
He didn’t dare to open it now as he was too frightened at the context, although it was possible that it was just an innocent letter about his first year in a foreign country written from a student to the man who used to be his coach.
But it might contain the answer he desired…and that was why he could not open it.
If Shiraishi was willing to be with him then he could never accept this fate where the one he loved, the one who would try to return his love, had been taken from him just before they would attempt to build a life together.
On the other hand, if Shiraishi had discovered that he could not accept Watanabe’s proposal then he would feel completely desolated as this had become the thing he desired the most, and it would never be able to be altered.
Because of this, he would only open this letter when he was on his death bad, only then would he be able to try and discover whether the answer has been given, because he believed he would be able to see Shiraishi soon, so the answer would not matter at all.

Author’s Note: I had such a problem with the mourning clothing at the very beginning. Originally I was making him wearing a mofuku, which is a Japanese mourning kimono- it’s all black. But apparently if you wear an all black kimono then people automatically assumes that you are going to a funeral. And I tried to do research and it is gets really complicated so I decided…I’ll just make him wear a formal dark kimono.

In regard to Shiraishi mentioning how he would return to Japan, I had the idea that he was accepting a scholarship that would let him study oversea. I think this one differs from ‘Conflicting Wishes’ as this one is not really one sided, Shiraishi actually realizes that he sort of like Watanabe but he wasn’t really sure whether that is a sort of like that might turn to love, but at least it is not one-sided. But the main thing is what he told Watanabe: he never thought about any of this so that is why he doesn’t understand this at all.

Once again I used the idea of him being a regular ever since his first year because I really think he is, I don’t really think he just jump to being the buchou as soon as he became a regular so I really believe that he is a regular in his first year. Watanabe is quite different but the idea is that the tragedy affected him in such a drastic way.

Initially I thought I would actually portray Shiraishi as rather vulnerable in this one but somehow I think that didn’t happen, I think he is actually quite confident about all this. Granted that he doesn’t know what he feels so he would take some time to think.

This story was actually going to be a love triangle, sort of. It actually started with Zaizen coming to see Watanabe from Zaizen’s view, but then I rewrite it as I want it to be Watanabe’s view, then I decided Zaizen coming out will not matter that much so…this is the result.

Title: The basis of the decision
Completed in: January 14-16, 2008
Summary: A chance encounter caused Sakuno to join Shitenhouji for a picnic, where she ends up learning more about Shiraishi as well as what type of a buchou he is. Yukimura thinks of why he behaved in a rather contradicting way in the finals by accepting Kintarou’s challenge (Genius 370) when Shiriashi asked him that, because he would have ensured Rikkai’s victory had he refused.
Theme: The difficulty a buchou faces in choosing whether he should act as the buchou, or act as himself.
Word count: 2019
Note: As I have said before, and it is important to remember this: the stories in ‘chapters’ are not really connected to ‘Sacrifice’ with the exception of the very first win: ‘In order to win’ Because ‘the cracked mask’ is, to an extent, a continuation of ‘Sacrifice’- what I think has happened and would happen and in ‘The cracked Mask I actually said that the Nationals was won by Seigaku, with the singles one match being between Kirihara and Echizen. Since this story have Yukimura and Echizen playing singles one and Rikkai winning…it is an individual enough one shot using the characters and setting of ‘Sacrifice’ (This is related to ‘A higher place’ because Yukimura will mention him having talked with Shiraishi.
Warning: in this one shot Yukimura won the singles match with Echizen so Rikkai is the winner! This is a warning to those who want Seigaku to win, please don’t leave me abuses.

Yukimura Seiichi had become a rather cold person to most and many only refrained them self from condemning him as arrogant because he had the skills to back up his confidence. Some even say that he was merciless due to what he allowed his team mates to do.
That was what his behaviour in the nationals caused others to think, but the real Yukimura Seiichi was actually quite different. Kirihara Akaya would tell anyone that his buchou was a very kind person despite the occasional scolding and teasing he would do. It was Yukimura who prevented his fukubuchou from punishing their second year kohai too much, as well as stopping Niou from committing too much problems.
He was also a very good brother, his younger sister adored him and never felt resentful because he was always careful in making sure that she did not see herself as unwanted or shadowed by him.
Since he had some spare time before he meet up with his team mates in order to eat yakinikuk for the night, he decided to be a very good brother by buying a present for his sister. It was just as well that his two closest friends were both busy as Yanagi would get too technical about whether the price and quality were balanced while Sanada was simply not good at such places.
“Hey, can I have another game with you?”
He almost burst out laughing when he saw Shitenhouji’s first year rookie- the boy’s mouth was filled while his hand barely managed to hold onto the two hamburgers with his freehand tugging at Yukimura’s jacket.
“I want to see if I can get it off this time.”
These words were reminiscent of what Echizen had said to him, but Yukimura’s lip turned upward instead of the other way this time.
“My jacket falling off does not mean that you will win, Tooyama-kun.” He said rather gently, referring to the result of his singles one match.
“Oh...that is true. But I still want to do it.” Kintarou said after a slight moment of dejection. “Let’s go, let’s go! Isn’t the xxx street tennis court nearby?”
Yukimura was not over-familiar with Tokyo, but he was certain about that street tennis court being quite some distance away. He then learnt that Kintarou intended to go there, but decided to get some food from this shopping centre first.
“I hope he is not as bad as Akaya.” Rikkai’s buchou muttered when the first year charged off before he even finished directing him to the exit.
He was a bit envious though, he would like to be at that stage of his life again, where all he had to worry about was himself.
Kintaoru suddenly stopped in order to talk to a girl wearing a yukata and Yukimura was sure that he had seen that girl before.
That girl must have been told about what he just did because she walked up to him and bowed as soon as the overly energetic first year took off.
“Thank you for helping him...” her words trailed off and she was almost staring at him in her attempt of working out who he was- this was almost a novel experience for him.
“You are the buchou of Rikkai, right?” upon his nod she pressed on. “I hope this will not offend you but are you really called Sanada Yukimura?”
“My name is Yukimura Seiichi.” He said with a rather wary smile, recollecting Sanada’s excitement upon hearing his name in their first meeting.
“Oh I am so sorry, it is just that I once went to Osaka castle with my boy friend and when we passed the statue of Sanada Yukimura, he muttered something about Rikkai’s buchou having the same name, so I thought he meant the whole name.”
“Don’t worry, this is not the first time some one asked me this because my fukubuchou’s last name is Sanada. By the way...are you that girl who went to find Shitenhouji’s Shiraishi in the stadium after the match for third and forth place?”
“Yes, and he is here too. Yukimura-san...I think I should warn you in case you bump into him. You are not exactly his favourite person right now.”
“Surely it can’t be due to the match I played with Tooyama-kun.” Yukimura muttered out. The only thing he could think of was that as the buchou of Shitenhouji had been very courteous when they had that talk in the stadium that night. “But if Tooyama-kun is not angry at all then...”
“Kuranosuke is the buchou, that is why.” She might have explained more if her phone didn’t suddenly rang, it seemed to have been an important call as she immediately excused herself.

The young teenager felt quite awkward when he noticed that the stall was almost completely filled with female, even more disturbing was the fact that many of them were pointing at him, laughing.
Maybe he should buy something non-gendered for his sister…
“Yukimura-kun?” Shiraishi examined in surprise when he saw the other boy. “I am very surprised to see you here.”
“I am buying a present for my younger sister.” He quickly muttered out. “This seems like a good place to go.”
“I suppose the other customers does indicate this.” Shiraishi agreed amiably with a nod.
“I met one of your team mate just then.” He decided to move straight to the point. “Tooyama-kun even asked me to play another game with him.”
“I am no surprised as he told me that you are the best player he has ever encountered. I am not a very unreasonable person, Yukimura-kun, so I do not blame you for accepting his challenge. You are in the full right to do so because Kin-chan was the one that asked you, and I am also to be blamed for not keeping an eye on him.” Shiraishi admitted.
“Probably not a very easy thing to do.” Yukimura said, recollecting the numerous times that Kirihara get lost and or get into trouble.
“But I still don’t understand why you agreed to play a match with Kintarou.” Shiraishi continued, his tone was no longer reproachful, it was a simply curiosity. “If you had not agreed then the umpire would declare Seigaku forfeiting, which would make Rikkai the winner of the national.“
“Does that matter when Rikkai became the winner anyway? I know that I can win my singles one match so why should I win by default? Would you yourself wish to have people suggesting that you only won because your opponent couldn’t play, when you know that you could win properly?”
Because Shiraishi was one of the top players in the country, as well as having a rather good reputation in his ethical behaviour, Yukimura was quite sure that the other would agree with his logic.
“The stacks are too high for me to do what you did.” Shiraishi stated firmly. “I am the buchou so I can’t just be like Kin-chan and focus on my own desires.”
“Would you really feel satisfied to be the winner that way? Many might not believe that you could beat them if you don’t proof this. Wouldn’t you also feel empty if you knew that you have lost if there was no default?”
“I can live with both of that. But I will not be able to forgive myself if I had an opportunity of winning yet threw it away. The main point was that you weren’t asked to do something that is wrong in any way.
“Yukimura-kun, you asked your friend engage in what he thinks as being dishonourable and then let your kohai engage in a game that was borderline on being foul, one of your team mates then played in a way that could only be done if he cares about your teams’ victory more then his own glory.
“So tell me, why did you behave in an out of character way, as well as acting contrary to your school’s attitude?”
What Yukimura asked Sanada was something that pained him quite a bit because he knew how his friend would take this. But as Shiraishi just reminded him, he was the buchou so he must ask his fukubuchou to win for the team as a buchou, instead of being a friend.
As for Kirihara…he was aware of the thin line they were treading on after the final of the Kantou regional. Had Seigaku decided to take the matter further then they might risk losing their second year, if their whole team was not banned from competing in the national. The fact that his kohai laughed at Fuji’s injury could easily be used as a proof that the incident was deliberate.
But he didn’t try to control Kirihara because to do so would limit the boy’s potential and he wanted to win the nationals so much.
So why didn’t he just refuse Kintarou’s challenge and make Seigaku forfeit the match by stepping onto the court immediately after the end of doubles 2. It was, as Shiraishi pointed out, fully in the rule.
Some described the buchou of Shitenhouji as cold because he just watched his team mates driving their opponents to exhausting without showing any sympathy in the quarter-final. It was true that his team mates were not breaking any rules but his reminder to them about the importance of winning instead of opening showing any concern made many saw him as cruel.
Yet he heard that Shiraishi had been one of the first to clap for Kawamura in the semi-final as he walked back to the court. This along with their brief conversation made Yukimura realise that Shiraishi was just single minded. His goal was for his team mates to win so he simply forced himself to focus on that instead of anything else.
He was not so much unlike him…
“I think it was because I felt that many were starting to doubt me due to my illness.” Yukimura finally said. “I know it is silly as I know what my skills are, but I still wanted to let the rest know. I admit, I did let my own wish overrule the interest of the team because making sure that Rikkai can win without breaking any rules should be my first priority, but I choose to show the world that I have fully recovered.
“It is not easy just being the buchou, this is my answer.”
“I think I can understand.” Shiraishi said softly, and his eyes were very sad as he looked at the items he was holding. “I did something that I thought I ought to do because I am the buchou at the very beginning of this year, but because I am not just the buchou I was really quite miserable throughout the year due to this.”
They suddenly both decided that it was quite a shame that they lived in two separate regions as they might easily have become good friends, or at the very least help out one another as they were quite similar.
“By the way, Shiraishi-kun, would you like to play a match?” he suddenly decided. “I do think that it is a pity that we didn’t get to play our singles one match in the semi-final last year.”
“I will have to ask Ashita…my girlfriend first.” Shiraishi said simply, “I don’t want her to think that I am choosing something tennis related over her again.”
This answer surprised Yukimura quite a bit because he thought that the other would agree without any hesistation, he would certainly abandon everything he was doing in order to test his skills with a top player.
Well, maybe not. He suddenly thought of the conversation he first had with Shiraishi just before his realisation of why he wanted to win so much. His friends were very important too as he wanted to win for them.
One did not simply try to be a good buchou just because of a strong sense of responsibility, a person would only be motivated to do these acts of sacrifices if they cared about those that they did these things for.

Super long authors note: I was thinking of why Yukimura didn’t just refuse Kintarou’s challenge and step onto court, because doing so would make Rikkai the winner. I got more confused because considering what Yukimaru has been doing- watching Kirihara going completely berserk, asking Sanada to play in a way that would make him feel bad, I felt that Yukimura is one of those buchou who would really sacrifice his own interest for his team. I think that most other buchou would accept Kintarou’s challenge but I felt that Kite and Shiraishi would not have. Kite because he have this whole idea of the end justify the means, he would win even by foul method if he have to for his team so I don’t see why he would hesitate about just stepping onto court. And Shiraishi because of his perfect tennis, I guess this is also something I wanted to show. I think Shiraishi really is a bit obsessed with winning but he is a really nice person, so I think his believe is to win by doing all that he can do that is honouarble. So in this I think he differs from Kite. Since he gives up his own enjoyment I think he might not care if people will say bad stuff about him (what Yukimura pointed out in this story), just as long as they win. The idea of sacrificing your interest for the sake of your team, I think Shiraishi would go that far too.

But in the end I realize Yukimura’ disease played a large part in his decision, I guess he does have a desire to proof himself because it seems people are doubting him already due to the fact that he was sick. And of course, no matter what a buchou is a normal boy as well.

I actually quite like Yukimura now, the power of fan fiction. But I have to say though, I like Kenya because I simply like him after I re read the shitenhouji arc. (my elder sister accused me of only liking Kenya due to fan fiction) this is not true, although Yukimuar is partly due to fan fiction, but then that is because fan fictions is forcing me to think about him, his character. Although I now really think Shiraishi and Yukimura are quite similar, although that is just my opinion! So this is also a Shiraishi x Yukimura friendship fic.

I admit, Ashita didn’t need to come out at all, but I want her to because I really want to have the bit about Sanada Yukimura. Sanada Yukimura is a Japanese warrior and when I discovered that he has a statue in Osaka I could just see one of Shitenhouji’s regular making a joke about this. So this is why Ashiat came out, and to start the first reminder that a buchou must make his decision in a different way from everyone else. As for Kintaoru, I really think he would be eager to play Yukimura again since Yukimura is really strong, and he seem one of those who would then keep on wanting to try.

Now, I know I have made fun of Yukimura by making him pretty evil in my what if fan fiction but I now think he probably is quite a nice person. I was at my friend’s blog the other way where people were complaining that Konomi-sensei is making Yukimura into a real bastard when he is probably quite a nice person, and that person even pointed out that Kirihara said Yukimura is a really nice person who even protects him from Sanada.

Shiraishi was referring to Sanada, when Yukimura asked him to throw away his head on challenge in genius 351/352. I think that Yukimura know how much this will affect Sanada, so he was choosing to be the buchou instead of a friend by asking Sanada that. While the last guy he mentioned is actually Niou (for explanation of what Shiraishi meant please read my previous story ‘Heads you lose, tails he win’)

As for the bit about Shiraishi, I saw someone saying that about him in the Kenya/Gin match against Kamio/Tetsu in the quarter final and this is my belief. I don’t think Shiraishi is being cruel on purpose as we see him clapping for Kawamura as well as turning his head away when Kawamura was sent flying to the stadium again, as well as telling Zaizen off. So I think he was just focused on his team because he is the buchou, and as I have said before- I think he is a bit single minded in the way he tries to achieve his goals, so that is why he told his team to win instead of expression any concern for Tetsu/Kamio. In fact, that is why I ended up writing sacrifice, because I think he would be so single minded as to dump his girl friend in order to concentrate on winning for his team.

Finally, I have been writing the cracked mask, in fact, I have got it all typed up and I am now just writing the link in between before I can publish it. While I am not sure I can get it done this month, I will be able to get the story completed in February. And I have been written my genbu kaiden fan fiction too.

I suddenly had inspiration for Chapters again and since I published these two oneshots on fan fiction net this weekend I thought I’ll put them on my blog too.

Title: Multiple definitions
Completed in: January 9, 2008
Summary: A chance encounter caused Sakuno to join Shitenhouji for a picnic, where she ends up learning more about Shiraishi as well as what type of a buchou he is.
Theme: The idea that the image and definition of an authoritative buchou is not always the same.
Word count: 1791
Note: One of my friend saw my comment about Shiraishi in relation to 40.5 and she find the fact that he like girls who smell like shampoo really funny, and she was left a message saying she wonder whether he would smell his girl friend’s hair after she had a bath and make a comment about the shampoo she use, and that then seem such a good idea for a fan fiction! So I really wanted to put it into ‘chapters’. So big thanks to Calliope Medina Erato for giving me this idea.

I wanted to do a Sakuno x Kintarou story before but it didn’t work, but the idea for that is then brought into this story, although this is not really a Sakuno and someone from Shitenhouji pairing, it is really just Sakuno happening to spend the day with Shitenhouji’s regulars, and I decided to let the story be seen from her point of view so the story will be less repetitive as I do deal with similar ideas.

Both Seigaku and Rikkai were taking advantage of the three extra days they had by spending the majority of this time practicing. This was why Sakuno could understand that Echizen might not have much time, although it still hurt for him to completely ignore her.
Was her dream really impossible? She wasn’t asking for much, all she wanted was to spend sometime with Echizen alone- just like the two couple who sat underneath the tree only a few steps away from her.
The girl was wearing a yukata while the person who must be her boy friend was in a yellow and green sports uniform that seemed rather familiar. If he wasn’t leaning against the tree trunk then she would be able to see the name of his school in large letters printed on the back of his jacket.
She wasn’t spying on purpose, she really just happened to see the boy grabbing the girl’s hair- which was still wet by being in chunks instead of separate strands- and raised it to his nose in order to smell it.
“I really miss this smell.” He laughed out. “Your hair always smells so nice whenever you wash it, although it smells a bit different then before.”
His girl friend turned away, blushing, which then made her notice the young girl sitting at the nearby bench.
“I am so sorry!” Sakuno began automatically, preparing to run…
“Hey it is that rice ball girl!” a rather familiar voice yelled out loudly and within seconds she was facing the one who had address Echizen with a very bizarre name, as well as eating the rice ball she made like if it was some food that fell from heaven.
“I am Tooyama Kintarou from…”
The boy who was sitting down leant forward and pulled the overly energetic boy by the collar with a bandaged hand, allowing Sakuno to have some breathing space again.
“Kin-chan, you don’t do this to girls, okay?” his explained in a tone that was a mixture of both patience and resignation.
“Shiraishi, aren’t you doing the same thing with Tanako-chan?” someone else said dryly, indicating the couple’s clear proximity before he turned to smile apologetically at Sakuno. “I am sorry for not introducing ourselves earlier but we are the regulars of Shitenhouji, the representative from Osaka. I am Oshitari Kenya, the fukubuchou, and that guy there is the buchou, despite being like that.”
“Hey hey hey, what do you mean by that?” Shiraishi protested indignantly.
“Shiraishi-buchou, Kenya-senpai meant that most people don’t go around smelling girls’ hair and say how nice it is…”
Sakuno couldn’t help but to giggle as they all began to argue rather good naturedly. She was certainly surprised by what the buchou of Shitenhouji was like.
She always thought that a buchou should be like Tezuka, since she greatly respects him, as well as having heard numerous praises from her grandmother and the other regulars. Not only did the buchou of Shitenhouji seem much more relaxed due to his smile, his teammates were not treating him with a deep awe or even respect- it was almost as if he just happened to be the buchou since most of them were teasing him.
“Why don’t you eat with us?” Kintarou offered, holding out a box of food toward her. “It will be fun.”
It would not be difficult to refuse their offer since they were strangers to her, but she did not see why she should when they were all so friendly, especially Kintarou, and perhaps she was also feeling desperately in need of a prove that she was not always unwanted.
“I…I am Ryuzaki Sakuno.” She began shyly but she didn’t even manage to finish as Kintarou grabbed her by the hand and pulled her to sit down beside him before he placed a whole box of food onto her lap.
“That is his way of saying he like you.” Shiraishi told her with a slight smile. “He actually kept on telling us about this really nice girl who gave him some really delicious rice ball.”
“I wish you can be bribed as easily as him.” his girlfriend butted in, leaning against him.
“But it seems he is bribed just as easily.” Yuuji laughed as he tugged the end of his friend’s still wet hair. “All you have to do is to wash your hair a lot!”
“At least that is better then my cousin…” Kenya began.

She ended up volunteering to buy some drinks for them since they were all strangers to Tokyo, and Zaizen somehow ending up as the one accompanying her.
“Zaizen…” Shiraishi had said something to the second year when he wordlessly took the bag Sakuno was struggling to carry, causing Zaizen to mumble something along the lines of “If you say so...”
“If you don’t then we’ll ask Tanako-chan to beat you up with karate!” Koharu had added merrily.
“Does Tanako-san know karate?” Sakuno asked, curious at Koharu’s remark.
“I think so.” Zaizen answered with a slight shrug. “She is probably in the karate club as I think I once saw her in one of these outfits when she came to find buchou last year.”
“She seems so talented then.” Sakuno whispered out rather wistfully. “Being able to do karate as well as playing tennis. Is she the buchou in the girls’ tennis club?”
“I am not sure who told me this but Tanako-senpai does not play tennis at all. Why are you so surprised?” Zaizen commented dryly due to her surprise. “There are more girls who don’t play tennis compared to girls who do play tennis.”
“But she is Shiraishi-san’s girlfriend and Shiraishi-san is the buchou!”
“Well, I don’t know about your Seigaku, but in Shitenhouji being the buchou does not come with the requirement of having a girlfriend who is really good at tennis.” Upon seeing her hurt expression he quickly apologised. “I am sorry, I always get told off by buchou and sensei for being too rude. I am not being mean to you on purpose, it is just that I tend to talk like this with pretty much everyone.”
She must have showed some sort of disbelieve that his buchou’s opinion mattered so much to him as the second year quickly added: “I know that we were all laughing at Shiraishi-buchou due to how he was behaving with Takano-senpai, but that is because he was not being the buchou just then. When he asks any of us to do something as the buchou we all usually listen to him.
“I think buchou must know this, why else would he dump his girlfriend and play tennis in a way that he dislike if he does not think that his team mates regard him as the buchou other then the one who happened to possess that title.” He was muttering to himself now as Sakuno could barely hear him, but she saw that he suddenly replaced his rather emotionless expression with a smile. “So I guess we don’t have to feel that bad for what he did.”
“Zaizen-san?”
“I guess I better answer your question. I don’t see why Shiraishi-buchou or any one of us will want a girl friend that plays tennis just because most of us are really good. I do love tennis but I don’t think I can do it every single moment, so that is why I won’t mind having a girl friend who doesn’t play tennis.
“To be honest, I’ll be more happy with someone like that as I won’t have to comfort her whenever she feels depressed due to not being as good as me.”
“But what if she is really good too?” Sakuno protested, as she always thought that the ideal girlfriend for any of them would be someone who could be as good as them, and this was certainly one of the drive toward her desire of improving her tennis.
“I spouse that can happen.” The arrogant second year genius admitted reluctantly. “Then it will be a bother to keep on arguing about who is better if we are on a similar level. But it is whether I like her that is important, if I like a girl from the girls tennis club then I will continue to like her regardless of how well she can play tennis.
“Do you have anymore question?” upon her shock of head, not really that big a surprise as his tone was rather brisk, he muttered something along the lines of: “the things buchou ask me to do…”
“What did…”
“He told me: ‘if she asks you a question, just answer it without being rude. I don’t want Shitenhouji’s reputation to suffer due to you once again.’”

Sakuno was pondering about what Zaizen had just revealed to her, so she did not notice the first hint of trouble until they were right in front of them.
“So this is the team from Osaka.” Someone wearing a purple and black uniform snorted out, interrupting the pleasant conversation the regulars were having. “You lot really do look pathetic.”
Kenya immediately stood up and yelled something back, while the joking pair both gave the offenders a very hard stare that make Sakuno shook a bit, as it was surprising how fast the friendliness was gone; Zaizen naturally delivered some sharp comments.
“Enough.” Shiraishi did not raise his voice but the hardened tone was actually enough to silence his team mates.
“And you are the buchou? No wonder your team mates lost since all you can do is cuddling up with a girl.”
“Why don’t we have a match then?” Kenya clenched out, clearly very angry.
“We’ll even give away some games to make it more fair.” Zaizen added coldly.
“Fine then, we’ll let you see...” the offending rival school pressed on.
“I said no.” Shiraishi repeated, his tone was much more hard, and there was also a firm and strong authority in it. “We are not going to do something stupid like that. Not one of you is going to play against a team that completely ignores all ethics.”
“But...”
“Why do any of you want to do something so stupid? We are the ones who won the title of being third while they are not even in the team who left just as we entered the competition.” Shiraishi continued. “We don’t need to waste our time this way.”
“Yes, buchou.” Zaizen muttered while Kenya reluctantly nodded.
Like many young girls, Sakuno still saw the world in a rather black and white fashion, but she just realised that the world was not as straightforward as she think it was: for example, the buchou of Shitenhouji was clearly an very authoritative buchou even if he initially didn’t seem to be one.

Final Note: First of all, Ashita actually does not spend that much time with the regulars of Shitenhouji, it is just that I happen to be writing about the time when they are there as well. Most of the other regulars are nice to her because she is their friend/buchou’s girl friend, and it is not as if she behaves in a negative way to them, although only Koharu and Yuuji are her friends as well. I think one reason they are really nice to her is sort of due to the fact that she and Shiraishi broke up because of them.

My sister once said, that Shiraishi was not an authoritative buchou, which I disagree with as I think he is actually doing a very good job. If you think about it, most of the buchou only needs to do something about their kohai, not their peers- with the exception of Tachibana (who I think is the most authoritative buchou). We know that Kintarou listens to Shiraishi, and I think Zaizen (his other kohai) is actually quite respectful to Shiraishi. When Shiraishi scold him, he didn’t rebut or anything, as one might expect him too- consider what he said to Kenya.

I feel that Zaizen does respect Shiraishi, especially when Shiraishi had been his buchou ever since his second year. As for Chitose, I think Chitose is a bit like Yanagi and Fuji, he is the one the buchou really does nothing about due to the fact that he is fully capable of looking after himself.

The yakiniku competition was used as an example, because his team mates still tried to make him drink inui juice, but this has nothing to do with tennis, and being a buchou for him is not a role that he must play all the time, I don’t think he wants to, especially if you consider what he had to do due to being the buchou. I think both he and his team understood that they went to the yakiniku as friends from a club, not as a buchou and his team mates.

I wanted to show the above in this story, and I decided to use Zaizen to explain since he is the only non-third year apart from Kintarou- who is an oddity. Basically, at the start of the story they were at the park as friends, so that was why they were all teasing Shiraishi, but then when the non-regulars from Higa come, Shiraishi took charge because this become a matter that involves them as tennis players, and in such a situation like that his team mates does listen to him.

I hope Zaizen was not out of character, I think he wasn’t. I believe that he respects his buchou enough in order to try and be polite when he is ordered to, (I guess this also link to a previous story in this series- ‘Additional duties’, where he admit that he probably does need to be a bit more polite. I think this is not untrue because he probably would have got told off quite a bit for being so rude) but he still automatically says something quite nasty. As shown by what he immediately said to Sakuno. But I really don’t think he is a bad kid, I think he just happens to be like that with almost everyone.

With this story I also got to show my believe that the regulars might not all want a girl friend who play tennis, because it can be problematic. (by the way, Zaizen likes a girl who is family-orientated.)

As for why I use higa as the bad guys…who else can I use? I feel that none of the non-regulars in any other school might be this rude and challenge the team that came third twice in a role (in this story) or who entered the semi-final twice in a role. I really dislike Higa due to their boasting in their match with Rokkaku, it is bad enough that you do this if you lose (trash talking your opponents, which was what the non-regulars were doing), but to do it if you win is so much worse.)

University is driving me crazy right now, I don’t know how I am going to survive. I just hope that I can some how survive, although I am not sure myself…

I am really angry at my lecturer, I have an assignment due next Tuesday and so far he hasn’t even uploaded the question it self! Well, although we can’t exactly do it because he probably won’t teach the bit that we need to do the assignment before the end of this week, hopefully, or one should really scream and demand to have an extension. But the annoying thing is that he rushes through the real hard stuff and spend a lot of the lesson talking about stuff that are not that really irrelevant. Such as how his accounting teacher used to whack them on the hand whenever they made a mistake. Yes, that is all very well, but what about using this time to explain the hard stuff even more. Gosh…

I am seriously wondering about the possibility of whether I can pass…I got a test on next next Thursday and I got a really bad feeling that he would probably only teach us the last stuff we need on the Tuesday lecture. (Wednesday is Waitangi day, so no class…)

Another thing is this: we should really be having one more lecture, but he just scratched that by saying that he can still manage to get all the teaching done and it is better for us to have some rest in between as that is what one need. Okay…even if he can manage, which I sort of doubt right now, I think it is much better to let us have more time before exam starts by finishing early.

I feel that my blog has been getting quite empty…so I decided to resume what I use to do- posting fan fictions at the weekend, so hopefully I can continue doing this…

I actually wrote this fan fiction sometime ago, really some time ago, when I was in my first year at university, so about one and half a year from now I believe. By the way, for those who are curious about Sukisyo please click the tag ‘anime/manga’ and keep on pressing previous 20 until you see the bit that says Sukisyo review.

This story is the first BL story that I have written although I always consider Yoru/Ran as being just Yoru and Ran. By the way, the rest of the story and my notes at the end presumes that you know the story so I won’t be doing any explanation in regard to the plot of Sukisyo.

Guilt

Ran, the night weeps for the crime committed by the day, because he lacks the power to stop these actions. Though his hand is not the one that struck, he feels as guilty as the day, as they are the same being.
I, who am called night, am just like the night that cries for the day.
You do not understand my words at all. I wonder whether you even want to understand. My presence seems to be able to drive away all your other worries.
I am glad, as that is what I vowed to do, ever since I first saw you. You were crying…crying because of the pain Sunao inflicted on you.
I know it is unfair, after all, was I not created for the same reason as you were? But not only do I endure Sora’s pain, I also feel yours as well. That is why my body would always shake even as I tried to sooth you.
Of course I know that you were not blaming me for that. No, I am not angry at all. How can I ever be? I love you so much.
But you would be right if you hate me for abandoning you.
Once again your hand closes over my right wrist, where the bandages sever our skins from being moulded together. Perhaps you are starting to work out the answer to that question you ask me so many times.
I should really withdraw my right hand from you, or at the very least stop you from unwinding the bandages. I am not. It would be a lie to say that I don’t care about that scar anymore when I still cover it. But I think you should know…
Oh, there is no need to cry at all! It did not hurt much, and it does not hurt anymore. It is a loathsome sight, I admit, but such is the nature of any scar.
Why was I going to leave you? Because I already left you.
I abandoned you.
Sora was the one who released Sunao’s hand, you protests, I would have held on. Yes…I think I would have managed. But Sora’s hand is my hand, and so it is this same hand that pushed your hand away, abandoning you in that hell!
I cannot forgive myself for what I did. I said that I am like the night that weeps because of the day. I cry for what Sora did, because in a way, it is what I did.
For a whole year I would be haunted with my last sight of you every single moment, and unlike Sora, my memories could not be sealed. I would see you…the petite little boy kneeing on the ground with his hand stretched out vainly, his face streaked by the tears that he was unaware of.
I could stand my guilt no more, so I took a knife and…
But I must speak about it, while you must listen, if you want me to stop hiding this from you. I must come to terms with my actions that caused this scar.
Yes, it did hurt slightly, but not as much as you believe. Here, let me guide your fingers. Don’t be frightened of touching this scar, it will not reopen my wound. You don’t need to fear about me being in pain again.
Even if I do bleed, it will not be painful this time, because you will comfort me. I know that you will stop any bleeding with your kiss, and massage any new scars with these pretty fingers.
This is how I cut myself, and this, is how I should have slit my wrist…
Why do you suddenly cling onto me? Do you really think that I would try to kill myself again when you are finally right next to me?
But you still don’t understand why I cover up my scar? Why Sora should not be tormented as I am when you say that the fault is his, and if anyone deserves to have my guilt, it should be him.
Oh, this concealment of guilt is not for Sora at all.
No, it is not for Shinichiro or Nanami, why would you even think of that?
Yes, I bandaged my hand when I knew that you will be here. Why? You ask me once more. Is the answer not obvious?
I do not want you to suffer anymore because of me. And I am not wrong, aren’t you still crying now because of this?
How do I become free from this guilt that you call non-existent? I do not know yet, despite your continuous assurance.
Perhaps only when a second chance come, when I can redeem myself by grabbing onto your hand forever, Ran.

Notes: Yoru literally mean the word night. I had this idea for sometimes but I didn’t write it until I learnt that my theory was correct! I thought that Yoru’s bandages was meant to cover up his hand as he tried to kill himself, or just wound himself as he felt guilty for leaving Ran behind, because what Sora did, is what he did in way. And the funny thing is I discovered from the drama cd, that this is what sort of happened. Yoru did try to kill himself for something that Sora did, but obviously he didn’t succeed, and the bandages serve to cover his hand up.

Today was not exactly a good day for me due to various stuff, oh the usual stress about assignments and all that stuff. And then a lousy day at work. I realise something…I definitely prefer cold days to hot days. Today was so hot that you just don’t even want to move, and going to work was really difficult as it felt so stuffy there. I don’t know how to explain it but it is that sense of stuffiness that just make even moving unbearable. And the really weird thing is that because it was not a busy day, things were harder. Well, ohime-sama was giving me quite some problems today. (apologise to Satsuki-sis for not answering her letter)

Well, I was examining some of my stuff and I was looking at my ‘what if’ fan fictions and I realise that I actually only have two more left. As most people would know by now, my what if fan fictions are a series of random scene that is meant to be funny, and I write in script from. I don’t know why but lately I’ve been having what if scenes in which my OC comes out. But anyway…this is the last two, so I probably wouldn’t be writing them for a while, because I don’t seem to have much ideas lately.

This one was written in response to what my friend Calliope Medina Erato said about my other what if fan fiction- the letter one. Which I ‘published’ on my blog the last day of last year. I said something along the lines of ‘Ashtia meeting Sengoku would be bad for Shiraishi, since Sengoku will probably be flirting with her. I can then see this scene when Minami asking Sengoku why Shiraishi is acting as if Yamabuki did something offensive to him. She then wrote the following: “Minami would be puzzled on why Shiraishi is hostile to them or maybe he would not be surprised if Sengoku is the cause of it. I can see Minami asking Sengoku: "Shitenhouji's buchou wants us dead all of sudden. What did you do this time?” And from that bit I had the idea for this what if scene…

So this relate to my previous letter- with a scenario that all these schools have gathered together for some sort of training, so they would be playing against each other. Although you can really substitute Shiraishi’s role for any other buchou…

Sengoku finally ends up in trouble…
Ashita: “Easy to find? How can Kuranosuke describes his location as easy to find? I swear, this must be the fifth tennis court!”
Sengoku: “Hey, are you alright? You look lost.”
Sengoku: “What a great opportunity- finding this cute girl! Lucky!”
Ashita: “Oh, can you help me? I need to go here, to this court. Do you think you can…”
Sengoku: “Of course, of course! Anything for a cute girl like you! This is a super lucky day for me since I get to help some one who is so pretty!!!”
Ashita: “Hahaha, Sengoku-kun is such a funny person.”

Shiraishi: “ASHITA?!”
Ashita: “Kuranosuke, I couldn’t find you so Sengoku-kun here kindly showed me the way.”
Shiraishi: “Is that so? Well, now that you found me, let’s go.”
Ashita: “Wait a second, don’t pull me so hard and don’t walk so fast. Are you angry at me or something?”
Shiraishi: “It is not you I am mad at.”
Sengoku: “By the way, Tanako-chan…”
Shiraishi: “Whatever it is, the answer is NO!”
Ashita: “Why are you so angry? All he did was showing me the way!” (1)

(Next day…practice match…)
Minami: “Okay, what is it with Shitenhouji’s buchou? That guy seems to want us dead as he keeps on glaring at us.”
Hagashikata: “I did hear a rumour about him having a fight with his girl friend.” (2)
Minami: “So he’s just taking out his anger on someone? Gosh, that seems so…”
Dan: “Oh, I think Sengoku-senpai was talking to Shiraishi-san’s girl friend yesterday.”
Everyone else excluding Sengoku: “Thanks a lot Sengoku.”
Sengoku: “Why does the air behind me suddenly seem very still…”
Minami: “Way to go Sengoku. You’ve just signed your death note.” (3)
Sengoku: “Hey, hey, hey, I didn’t do anything wrong okay? I was just helping her out when she asked me to.”
Sengoku: “Isn’t it rude to deliberately ignore someone when they ask you to help?”
Yamabuki (excluding Sengoku): He does have a point…
Minami: “But why will Shiraishi be that mad if you were just talking to his girlfriend? It must have been something more because I doubt that he would get that angry if you just talked to her since it is highly unlikely that she wouldn’t meet any guy here.”
Sengoku: “Well, he might have heard me telling her how pretty and cute she is.”
Yamabuki (excluding Sengoku): “…”
Sengoku: “But I didn’t know that she was Shiraishi’s girl friend, okay? So she had a kansai accent but that doesn’t mean everyone from Kansai is related to Shitenhouji!”
Sengoku: “Since she really is a cute girl I don’t see why I shouldn’t tell her so.”
Hagashikata: “Somehow I don’t think this is the end of the story.”
Sengoku: “Okay, I might have accidentally brushed my hand across her sleeve somehow, and I suppose I was standing a bit close to her.”
Sengoku: “Or maybe he is mad because I wanted to ask her name…well, maybe her phone number too as…”
Minami: “Maybe that is why he is really angry at you! Cause you were going to hit on his girl friend!”

(1) This is probably enough to make any guy even more mad…
(2) He is Minami’s doubles partner, the other half of the Jimmies
(3) Direct quote from Calliope Medina Erato, online friend

There is one more but life journal is being really stupid so I will publish it maybe tomorrow or Sunday as I can not be bothered to work out why now…

I admit, I have been bad in not updating my blog as I am not managing my time very well. I am surviving and I think that I should be able to manage...

Anyway, yesterday was actually the Japanese coming of age day, which I didn’t really know about before. I have heard of it being mentioned in manga/anime/janapese drama before, but I didn’t really know about it until I wrote The Cracked mask- one of my prince of tennis fan fiction. Basically (according to my research at Wikipedia), the ‘seijin shiki’ is the Japanse coming of age ceremony and it is on the first second Monday of January and you go to it the year you turn twenty.

The reason why I ended up finding this out is because I was looking up for information on kimono (because Aizuki-main OC in that fiction had this kimonon and is meant to be wearing it in a certain chapters, so I was wondering what occasion would let her wear it.) and the page that talk about the furisode (the type of kimono that have very long sleeves) mentioned that a furisode is often wore at this coming of age ceremony. So I naturally clicked on the link.

As most people who visit my blog would know, I live in New Zealand. And we just had the Heineken opening- it is a tennis tournament that is one of the many organised by the association of tennis professionals. (Once again, hail to the great wikipediea). Basically there are prices and winning games in it does alter one’s ranking, although not that much. And the stadium is very close to Auckland university, in fact- you can see it if you go to the newest building- the fish and pypall building. Although I doubt that you can just watch the tennis game from there.

But anyway, me and albatross-sis ended up watching the finals on our, at the very least my, precious Saturday afternoon. (I have school now so…) And it literally took all afternoon as the match just got dragged out. Maybe it is because of Prince of tennis but I found it really enjoyable- even though it is really ordinary tennis. (but Shiraishi plays normal tennis, saved for his entako shot. Now that I think about it, Yukimura seem to play perfect tennis too, saved for his really weird shot that he showed against Kintarou. I suppose these two can still be categorised as normal in the prince of tennis world, since they only (very rarely) plays their prince of tennis world style. I refer to the manga, because Shiraishi didn’t use his entako shot at all in the OVA) But anyway, I suddenly realise the importance of getting all the basic stuff right- like Shiraishi. Because when I was watching the final on Saturday- which consisted two players who are ranked twenty and thirty something out of all the tennis players in the world, not to mention one had been top one during one stage, I actually saw double faults (if you screwed up your serve twice then your opponent automatically get the point) more often then I thought would be possible. And for all we know, that might have made a difference. At the semi-final there was even this case- one guy was at his match point, and it was at an advantage serve- basically he scores he win, but he screwed up his serve due to double fault and the point went back to deuce again. He still won but imagine how angry one would be if you might have won if only you didn’t screw up your serve.

Explanation from someone who doesn’t really understand tennis herself: say A and B are playing and A is serving. The point then become 40-40, known as deuce. If one of them scores again then the game became advantage serve for them, and he must score one more time in order to win the game. (I think this happened in the Kamio and Kaidou match.)

Unfortunately for me, summer school has resumed so…to be honest I am feeling a bit depressed due to having to be in summer school again but I’ll live. Note- I am not in summer school to retake any papers, because last year one of my friends thought that I was in it cause I failed all my papers. That wasn’t true. The reason I am attending summer school as well as having attended it last year has nothing to do with me failing anything.

But the problem is that this is a literal end of my freedom, before I could just go ‘Oh it doesn’t matter if I stay up a bit late in order to do this and this’, or ‘I’ll get this done tonight’, because once school started you have obligations to your school work. It is just a bit hard to get use to after having two month of pure freedom. But I’m throwing that much a fit or anything, because I should be able to get back to being acceptant about university after a week.

My major dilemma, should I really read the text books? I always ends up reading them but it seems 90% of the time you don’t need to read them… (but then it is always the fear of this beign the 10% of the time that you read them.) Well…anyone in school will know, text books can really put you to sleep…and I especially don’t like reading non-fiction stuff in the first place.

However, going to university yesterday was not that bad because the university ground is actually really peaceful, since there isn’t that many people. Usually it is really crowded.. I remember how surprised I was last year when I went to my first day of summer school, because there was so few people. Usually you look forward and just see people, but in summer school it is so empty, and the library is really quiet.

So this is the last day of the year and I have decided to let this be my last entry. Since I got quite addicted to prince of tennis this year I thought I’ll put this piece of writing up, which basically involves talking about most of the players. This relates to my prince of tennis fan fiction as it includes the character Tanako Ashita…The scenario is that all the schools are gathered together in order for some sort of training, and then Shiraishi heard that Ashita might come and see him, so he decided to write a letter to her, describing the people that she will probably meet…

A letter from Shiraishi to Ashita

…I will certainly be very glad to see you but I think I really should warn you about the people you might meet, as well as advising you about who you should ask direction from.
First of all, please try to find one of Shitenhouji’s members. I don’t need to mention Koharu and Yuuji but both Kenya and Chitose will be really helpful, and Gin is actually a very nice person. (1)
As for Zaizen…I think he will be polite to you as he should know who you are. I am not sure if Kin-chan remembers you as that kid’s memory is absolutely hopeless, but this shouldn’t matter much because I will probably be with him. (otherwise he will end up doing something disastrous…not that this hasn’t happened already.)

Seigaku’s uniform is blue and white and remember, their coach is an old woman, not one of the two wearing glasses! This is very important! The one with the longer hair is their buchou and don’t be offended if he just speaks to you in point form as he does that with pretty much everyone. Whatever you do, do not accept any sort of food and drink from the other glasses guy! In fact, it is probably better to not talk to that guy at all as I think he is a bit of a stalker due to what I have heard…
I think the best thing to do will be asking direction from the guy with the really weird hair. He is their fuku-buchou and he is probably one of the nicest and considerate guys I have ever met, although the people from Seigaku in general are quite nice.
Well…I am a bit uncertain about the guy wearing a bandana…it is not as if he has been rude to me but I got quite a scare when he suddenly glared at me the other day. I also got quite a scare from Kawamura Takashi- he started to scream ‘BURNING!!!’ when he picked up a racquet. (although Gin tells me he is a very nice person.)
There is also Echizen Ryoma…Kin-chan’s ‘Koshimae’. He usually wears a cap. He is…he is very different from Kin-chan in many ways. I think to an extent he is quite obsessed with winning and the problem is that he wants people to know it- that he will keep on winning. Well, he is only a kid so don’t be offended if he says something rude about Shitnehouji, or about me.

I think that is the main cast from Seigaku. Hyotei is here too, the school that Kenya’s cousin attends. They have a greyish white uniform. You will be able to recognize Kenya’s cousin really easily due to his accent.
Their buchou also have a very particular way of talking: he always talks like this: “ore-sama this”, “ore-sama that”. He is also an absolute narcissist! He actually said this during my match with him yesterday: “ore-sama’s beautiful skill is glowing more brightly each day.” I almost failed to serve the ball across the net as that was just unbelievable! I think that could rival with the time I first saw Koharu and Yuuji’s synchronising. (2)
But I heard that the nicest guy in Hyotei is the one called ‘Ootori’. (he is one of the tallest guy in Hyotei and he’s not the one that only says ‘usu’.) he’ll probably be standing next to a guy wearing a cap backward. They’re double partners and they seem to be really good friends. Ootori certainly seem to worship his senpai. I can’t help but to wonder…was I like that with Nakakurai-buchou? I hope not…I really hope that I wasn’t that that bad… (3)
By the way, Hyotei have this really weird second year who seem to be planning world domination due to this phrase that he keep on saying the whole time. Thank goodness that Zaizen is not like that at all.

St Rudolph’s uniform is white and brown, and I think it has St Rudolph printed in quite large letters somewhere. Please avoid them if you can as some of them have been bothering me quite a bit. Fuji Shuusuke’s younger brother is in that school and he is really eager to beat me as I managed to win against his brother. I don’t really understand him- he seems to really look up to his brother, yet he almost threw a tantrum when I said: “Oh, so you are Fuji Shuusuke’s younger brother.” I’ve never seen him before while I have at least played against his brother, so of course I’ll say that!
There is also this other guy who insists that I am one of his destined rivals or something like that since I beat Fuji Shuusuke, who is also his destined rival. But he does not seem to be really good as I managed to beat him with a score of 6-0. He is certainly not on the same level as Fuji Shuusuke. Later on, I asked Fuji Shuusuke about this and he told me that he have no idea about who that guy is at all. (4)

Chitose’s friend Tachibana is the buchou of Fudomine and their uniform is all black with Fudomine in large letters at the back, a bit like my uniform. Tachibana is really easy to recognise as his hair is dyed blond.
The guy with the longest hair in their team is Ibu Shinji and he has this habit of muttering out aloud. Tachibana and the rest of the team have been telling everyone that he just talk that way, That he really is not doing this as an insult. So don’t be offended if he says something like this to you: “Take you to the buchou of Shitenhouji? Why do you have to ask me as I could be doing something else with this time. Why can’t you try to find him yourself? I don’t even know where he is but I guess I should find you as other wise you will say I am rude so I better do that then.” Something like that as that was what he said to us when Kenya asked him where Kamio is.
I am quite relieved that Kenya doesn’t play tennis in the exact same way as Kamio, even though their playing style is really similar. Because I really don’t want to see our fuku-buchou screaming out: “I am going to go with the rhythm!”, “The rhythm is getting faster!” in his game. (5)

If you see anyone wearing purple, then run the other way. The team from Higa chuu is absolutely infamous as they actually hit Rokkaku’s coach and then tried to do a similar thing with Seigaku’s coach. To be honest I really can’t stand seeing them because they remind me of the mistake I had made: being so obsessed with winning.
I know that I will never do such a thing as hitting someone with tennis but it…it still scares me, Ashita, to realise that they are driven by the exact same reason as I was. I am really not that much unlike them…doing something I did not like for the sake of winning…even hurting other people. That is why I am quite envious…almost jealous of Koharu and Yuuji: their joking tennis is something that they enjoy, as well as something that makes people laugh. (6)

By the way, if you see someone wearing all green, run from them too. I heard that Yamabuki has a delinquent in the team and apparently he knows karate. I know that you are really good at karate too but I think it is better to avoid them, just to be on the safe side.
The other reason Yamabuki is so dangerous is because of their fuku-buchou...he have a tendency to flirt with any pretty looking girl and achieve great success. It is not that I don’t trust you but remember what you yourself said when you saw some girls trying to give me chocolates on valentine day?

Then there is Rokkako…I still don’t really know much about them other then the fact that they have a first year buchou. I should really go and talk to him because I don’t want to see another person repeating what I did. But in general, the whole team seemed to be very friendly. (7)

Lastly, there is Rikkai. They have this mustard colour like uniform. Ashita, there are two very important things you have to remember, even if you forgot all the other stuff I have said, you really should remember the following.
First of all, the guy wearing a cap is not the coach, however much you might think that he looks like one. He is their fuku-buchou, so he is our age, even if he appears to be older then sensei. (8)
Secondly, do not say the word sea-weed around them, as their second year goes psycho if he hears that word. We ended up having to literally drag him off the court during his match with Echizen yesterday. Echizen was saying something in English, most likely a taunt due to the tone. One of Rikkai’s members then suddenly said something like this: “You still have a long way to go, you seaweed head.” He then went crazy…psycho!
Yet he is such a strange kid as he is so different when he is not playing tennis…he actually seems to believe that my hand is poisoned too… (9)
As for their buchou…I’ve talked to him a few times and he seems to be a nice person, although I am a bit weary of him as there are times when his smile resembles sensei’s smile whenever he is up to something. But I think he will definitely be very nice to you. You should be able to tell that he is the buchou quite easily due to the way his team mates behave around him.
The person wearing glasses in Rikkai is their ‘gentleman’ but apparently he and his doubles partner ‘the trickster’ (who is the very opposite of him) often disguises as each other. Since only their team mates can tell who is who, I think it is best to stay away from both of them.
Rikkai has a vivid date collector too, although he is probably less dangerous then Seigaku’s Inui as I have yet to see him distributing any sort of deadly drinks. But that does not seem impossible as they seem to be good friends.
The two of them are certainly the most annoying doubles pair I have ever played against! This is what they said as soon as they got on court.
“‘The probability of him hitting a cord ball within ten moves is 60%’. That is what you want to say isn’t it, Sadaharu?”
“Ah, as to be expected of Renji, although you are 1% off.”
“I should have guessed this, Sadaharu, since you have a much fresher data then me.” (10)
Oshitari Yuushi did not help by saying the following: “The probably of you getting a bit annoyed is 90%, no?”
I think the scary thing is that I might really have done that if I was playing perfect tennis.
But I haven’t, the last time I played perfect tennis was at the match against ‘Nagoya Seitoku. I am really glad to say… (11)

Ashita: Kuranosuke…I can’t help but to wonder whether you really do want me to visit you…

1- in my fan fiction Ashita is actually friends with Koharu and Yuuji as well, sicne Shiraishi is very close friends with them/

2- Atobe actually said something along this line in his un-official game with Sanada in the junior selection camp arcs.

3- this bit refers to my proper prince of tennis fan fiction, although I didn’t give his buchou a name before. But I finally decided that I should probably give him a name. So I just picked a name from a list of Japanese last names. But anyway, if you don’t want to know anymore, then just ignore the next bit. But basically in my story there is this whole thing of how Shiraishi was made into a regular in his first year, and he actually played doubles with his buchou, who personally taught him a lot. So as a result he really looks up to his buchou.

4- If you like Mizuki then I am sorry but I really don’t think he is on the same level as Fuji, while Shiraishi is one of the top senior players. Therefore, I think Shiraishi beating him 6-0 is very possible.

5- laughs…Shiraishi, what about your ‘ecstasy’? The thing is, I first read the manga in Chinese so I didn’t know the word he said is actually ‘ecstasy’ I just thought that it was something like ‘oh yeah!’ or ‘great!’. So that is probably why I never really thought about why he said it, I think when I knows that he says ‘ecstasy’ (when I watched the ova) I was already writing my fan fiction, so I never tried to explain why he would be saying that. Even now, I never think about why he would be saying that. (laugh)

6- The higa bit is probably the most serious bit in this whole scene. Once again, this bit has ideas from my proper fan fiction. These set of what if fan fictions are different, not really my proper fan fiction. But this story is based on the ideas of my proper fan fiction. So basically what he meant by him having hurt someone, is referring to what happened with him and Ashita.

7- I really don’t know what to write for Rokkaku…this is the best I can come up with. Once more, I really believe that Shiraishi being a buchou in only his second year played a large bit in the formation of his character. That is why I really believe he would be quite concerned and even a bit worried that Kentaru is a buchou in his first year as he is such a nice person.

8- I can’t recall how old I thought Watanabe was when I first saw him. I just remember being really shocked at how young he was, although I quickly reminded myself that this is prince of tennis…where appearance does not reflect real age. To be honest I think Watanabe must be one of the few people who actually look like his real age, although I do think he can probably pass off as a few years younger. (I am talking about the manga as I don’t really like how he is drawn in the ova.)

9- I think this is quite possible- well, if you based this on the various games and the ova commentary. In the ova commentary with Marui, when he was accused of having eaten the other’s lunch, he said the following: “It wasn’t me! It was…a caterpillar!!!” while in one of the games he gave a bug to the girl you get to play as he really thinks the bug is cute…Heck…even Momoshiro and Kikumara seemed to have believe that Shiraishi’s hand is poisoned! I really wish that Shiraishi said “What do you think?” instead of just telling them “It was a lie” Because seriously…

10- This I just randomly made up. The whole probability thing so don’t read too deep in it, it doesn’t really reflect my view or anything.

11- The letter basically trails off here. The idea is that this is just an extract in his letter.

Initially I thought what happened is that Watanabe had no idea that his students actually decided to go to yakiniku instead, but when I read my manga I actually saw that Watanabe was actually with them, since a hard copy is much more clearer, so he knows that they went to the store. Basically Watanabe is at the very right hand end, one should be able to recognize his coat.

I though that the coaches has been a bit idiotic in regard to the yakiniku competition because they were eating together, and shouldn’t they then realize that all their students are at the same place, and that these boys are very likely to do something foolish when they are gathered together? And since this is a restaurant, shouldn’t they foresee that it might end up being very expensive. Initially I thought that this is an all you can eat restaurant, so I thought that’s why no one was worried!

Initially I thought that Watanabe was probably the one who is to be blamed the least since he thought that his students were outside, although “Sensei, don’t you think that is it highly likely your student might decide to go in when they saw that everyone else is in there? And considering that Shiraishi is clearly quite sad at having lost the semi-final just then, don’t you think it is quiet likely that he might just decide to forget all his responsibility and try to drown his sorrows?”

But it turned out to be like this…personally I think the reason Watanabe let them eat Yakiniku is because he saw that these boys actually want to eat Yakiniku, and I can see him giving them persmisson in a quite sweet/cute way. Telling them that: “Well, I said that you guys get to eat nagashi somen if you win, but since you guys lose I better not give you guys that. Instead, you guys will have to put up with Yakiniku.” I really see Watanabe as a coach who really cares for his students, although he doesn’t let people see this easily.

But I can also see this version in my mind…

Just before Shitenhouji went to eat Yakiniku with the rest…
Shiraishi: “Sensei, are you really going to pay for all of us?”
Watanabe: “Of course, is it that surprising?”
Shiraishi: “Well…yeah. So I need to make sure that you really will pay for us.”
Watanabe: “Alright, technically the school is paying for this, as it is part of the funds that we raised...”
Shiraishi: “Sensei, isn’t this illegal?”
Watanabe: “Well, think of it this way: we raised the money for the purpose of this trip but any leftover will be given back to the school so we might well use it.”
Shiraishi: “Yes but…”
Watanabe: “Unless you want to pay for it, Shiraishi? It will cost about…”
Shiraishi: “I didn’t say or hear anything.”

For some reason Watanabe does seem to be that kind of person- using school funds for his private purpose (laughs)